548 NAMES AND OBSERVATIONS ON INDIAN PLANTS.
in the filaments being at base connate with the lower part of the style, and in a great degree in habit. In endea- vouring to estimate the importance of the several points of resemblance and difference here enumerated, with a view to decide on the degree of relationship Apostasia bears to OrcJddea, it is necessary to consider the relative position of the parts of the flower in that order, and also in Scita- minea, the family most nearly allied to it.
The relation of stamina to the parts of the floral enve- lope in Apostasia is in the first place to be determined. The two antheriferous filaments, which I have more par- ticularly examined in the unexpanded flowers of Apostasia nuda, appear to be opposite to the two lateral segments of the inner series of the perianthium ; and the sterile filament in Apostasia Wattichii, and, no doubt, also in A. odorata, is opposite to the anterior segment of its outer series.
Several years since, I advanced the opinion, " That in a complete flower, whose parts are definite, the number of stamina, and also of pistil la, is equal to that of the calyx and corolla united in Dycotyledones, and of both series of the perianthium in Monocotyledones." 1
It may be further observed that, in cases of reduction of pistilla, it is generally found that the remaining carpella, when more than one, but inferior in number to that of one series of the floral envelope, correspond in position with parts of both series, and, with very few exceptions, whether distinct or confluent, are all equally developed. Stamina, on the other hand, in cases of equal reduction, generally belong to one of the series only, or, if corresponding with parts of both series, are usually in different states of development, as they are here described to be in two species of Apostasia.
This appearance of part of the inner series of stamina has not hitherto been expressly remarked in OrcJiidea*. It is not improbable, however, that the same relation to perianthium exists in the lateral antheriferous stamina of
1 In 1826, in Appendix fo ' Denham and Clappertorfx Travels? p. 237 {vol. i, t>, -293).
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